[6] Upon his return to Italy from his many adventures, the great warrior Hercules learns that his lover, Princess Deianira, has lost her senses.

Hercules, with two companions, Theseus and Telemachus, embarks on a dangerous quest for the stone, while he is unaware that Deianira's guardian, King Lico, is the one responsible for her condition and plots to murder the girl to make himself immortal.

The climax has Hercules smashing Lico with a giant boulder and throwing similarly large rocks at an army of zombies.

Films considered belonging to this subgenre include Riccardo Freda's The Witch's Curse and Sergio Corbucci's and Giacomo Gentilomo's Maciste contro il vampiro.

[10] The Opera Theater Oregon commissioned composer Patrick Morganelli to write a companion piece to the film, Hercules vs. Vampires, which premiered in Portland in 2010.